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myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:23 PM
Camponotus punctulatus is a carpenter ant from Argentina. They make massive mounds in open pastures.
This might sound very pedestrian and boring but it's very odd that a carpenter ant is building mounds.
Solonopsis (fire ants) make small mounds and are a real hazard because they sting. Camponotus punctulatus can't sting. Yet these carpenter ants change the landscape.
Very little documentation on these ants. Morphologically they look very similar to other carpenter ants.
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Replies

myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:26 PM
What is it in their genetics or the interaction of their genetics and life habits with the environment that changes the ant so she collects soil relentlessly, then packs it tight, and makes it into an ant sky scraper?
The mounds probably help them to manage heat in their nest and humidity. I like how they are covered in grass.
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myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:30 PM
It kind of blows my mind that the carpenter ants that I see all the time *could* do this. It's just not an adaptation that makes sense in this context. I wonder how quickly this could arise if conditions changed?
A few 100 generations? A few thousand?
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myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:33 PM
Here is a search showing various mounds.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/300421-Camponotus-punctulatus/browse_photos?quality_grade=any&term_id=22&term_value_id=35&layout=grid
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clewclew@ecoevo.social
Jul 5, 2026, 11:29 PM
Yes — do the tops not dry out too much for grasses? Do the pastured animals graze them all over? Are they all the same size from engineering or competition? Thats amazing!
@futurebird
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myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:31 PM
@clew
Yes the animals just seem to munch around them. Farmers complain that the ants bite sometimes, but they can't do very much so it seems to be a thing where they just live together.
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Wordstitcher :TheCDN4:wordstitcher@thecanadian.social
Jul 5, 2026, 11:35 PM
@futurebird
Here on the Canadian west coast, carpenter ants chew wood fences, window frames and houses that aren't protected at ground level. Flickers and pileated woodpeckers love them and will hammer into those same places to get them. Toss up which does the most damage, but inevitably the targets have to be replaced.
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AmbulocetusAmbulocetus@mefi.social
Jul 5, 2026, 11:39 PM
@futurebird A vewrry interesting species. At first I wondered if maybe they are filling a similar niche to Formica exsectoides, but since they don't kill the grass, probably not.
Is their diet similar to other Camponotus?
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myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:41 PM
@Ambulocetus
There is so little info in English on them ... their ant wiki page doesn't even mention that they make these mounds!
So, I don't know what they eat, but they must be getting a lot of calories to have such massive populations.
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AmbulocetusAmbulocetus@mefi.social
Jul 5, 2026, 11:43 PM
@futurebird I wonder if something about that particular environment has caused that adaptation? Perhaps something about properties of the soil?
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Ángela Stella Matutinaangelastella@treehouse.systems
Jul 5, 2026, 11:53 PM
@futurebird @Ambulocetus
They like abandoned rice paddies a lot:
https://hormigas.unq.edu.ar/?page_id=321
If you need help beyond the point where automatic translation breaks down, hit me.
I love the Guaraní name for the mounds, tacurú.
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myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:56 PM
@angelastella @Ambulocetus
Aw gee that page won't load. "database error" I'll try later...
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Ángela Stella Matutinaangelastella@treehouse.systems
Jul 6, 2026, 12:00 AM
@futurebird @Ambulocetus
Probably the DDoS effect of hundreds or thousands of fedi instances fetching the page.
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AmbulocetusAmbulocetus@mefi.social
Jul 6, 2026, 12:03 AM
@angelastella @futurebird
My Ex-wife spoke Guaraní. Unfortunately I was too busy trying improve my Spanish to learn any. From what I remember, its very interesting.
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discobeezdiscobeez@mas.to
Jul 6, 2026, 10:46 AM
@futurebird I have a vague memory of reading about some flea species that makes (small) environment based adaptations in *one* generation.
Mom-flea living in a tough environment, has baby fleas with a helmet like growth that makes them tougher prey.
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Camdawcas@fe.disroot.org
Jul 6, 2026, 12:11 PM
@discobeez @futurebird in mammals it’s proven that gene expression is altered by the parent’s trauma and those changes last several generations. Maybe the mechanism is similar?
https://www.science.org/content/article/parents-emotional-trauma-may-change-their-children-s-biology-studies-mice-show-how
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pmcmpeter_mcmahan@mas.to
Jul 6, 2026, 12:25 PM
@discobeez @futurebird that's wild. I was reading that grasshopper vs locust is a one-generation change too. https://explosion-scratch.github.io/locusts/
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MCDuncanLabMCDuncanLab
Jul 6, 2026, 1:23 PM
@discobeez @futurebird
That's a dimorph, not evolution. Spadefoot toads can do it. If they are born under certain conditions they are carnivores, otherwise they are vegetarians.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10093105/
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discobeezdiscobeez@mas.to
Jul 6, 2026, 3:03 PM
@MCDuncanLab @futurebird not sure anybody was talking about evolution :-)
Also, that's an interesting article!
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A cool crab wearing shadesneckspike@indiepocalypse.social
Jul 5, 2026, 11:35 PM
@futurebird Well if there's no good wood to build a nest in you gotta build your own tree! Out of mud!
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Chris Millsambientspace@cloudisland.nz
Jul 5, 2026, 11:32 PM
@futurebird some fascinating things are going on with the soil in that photo. So many mounds! One wonders at the rich biodiversity and likely improvement to soil quality with all that activity.
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Linotype Pilgrimsymbo1ics.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy
Jul 5, 2026, 11:50 PM
Yes, fascinating indeed! My own question is: If we look at the plan view, how interesting that the spacing/location of each mound is self-organised in a decentralised way; I wonder by what system/function? I wonder if it is some sort of minimum-energy/minimum-conflict function.
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myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Jul 5, 2026, 11:54 PM
@symbo1ics.bsky.social @ambientspace
My husband says "it looks like co-op city"
(it looks like our neighborhood too LOL)
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Michael Gemarmichaelgemar@cosocial.ca
Jul 5, 2026, 11:36 PM
@futurebird Very cool!
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Emily VelascoMLE_online@social.afront.org
Jul 5, 2026, 11:48 PM
@futurebird kinda rude of the hammer owner to break open the ants' house like that
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Damon L. WakesDamonWakes@mastodon.sdf.org
Jul 5, 2026, 11:59 PM
@MLE_online @futurebird I was thinking that.
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Dave Muthouter@mas.to
Jul 6, 2026, 3:51 AM
@futurebird Look at the size of that village of nests! I wonder if they rely on each other, or just get along.
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Roy -- the dull oneoldclumsy_nowmad@mastodon.social
Jul 6, 2026, 4:01 AM
@futurebird
Thanks for sharing this fertile opportunity for wondering and speculating about these ants and their adaptive behaviors.
For one thing, it boggles my mind to think how many ants must be finding enough food in this field if every mound houses thousands(? or hundreds?) of ants.
What an intriguing system!
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